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Been working like a mofo mostly, went to an exclusive early screening for Wreck-It Ralph 2 on Wednesday (review coming up as soon as I catch up with those - posted another twelve this week), to a fancy restaurant on Monday (Borgmästarn), played some GTA VC on Android every night and this weekend I finally got this thing done. Half a year after the last update!

It's been on my mind for some time now, but various issues kept coming in the way. I won't delve into detail on that again - already posted a massive post about that on the thread which the link above links to if for some reason you're interested in what that's all about. You might be interested if you're a big fan of NG and have no idea what the hexalist is. Or if you're not a big fan of NG in which case you definitely should become one - then check out the hexalist once you start wracking up some stats.

In site-related news I've fixed it so that I can use shy hyphenation without WordPress interfering, via this simple filter (add to functions.php if you want to use it): add_shortcode('shy', 'my_shy_shortcode'); function my_shy_shortcode($atts) {return '­';}

...when that's in there you just need to enter [shy] in a post, and there you go! I'm plotting to use this for more similar time-saving things, like non-breaking spaces and breaks. At least.

I added in a nifty little comment edit plugin last week too, so anyone who posts - account or no, has five minutes to fix potential comment errors... or delete their comment entirely should they very quickly regret ever posting it. Since we're GDPR compliant anyone can send in a request for such things anyway, though. JSYK. This is starting to sound like a promo post... just want to let y'all know: things be changing around here!

Next week it'll be off to Östersund for a long weekend, to visit my brother and his family, maybe have some both embarrassing and good times learning basic ski techniques I should have learned some twenty years ago like everyone else who lived where there was snow did and... well, having a good time. I'll be going by train, and back by plane, straight to work, and then off to Hungary a few days later.

Was feeling kind of stressed out a few days ago, but I''m calm right now... hope it's not one of those before-the-storm things. Travel's always a double-edged edge that way. For me, at least. It's great once you've gone somewhere, but just way too much preparation - mental and otherwise - before each trip. Surely that'll all fade away with time though? And I grew up abroad. I should be used to that life. Will be living like a globetrotter a little while there's still some winter darkness to stay distracted from (speaking of that though: we've got snow now: it's awesome), and hopefully come back more focused than ever; rich with experiences from the faraway world! Err... neighboring countries. Exciting times though.

May not have time to post next weekend but I'll see y'all around. A few more reviews should be up soon too.

Why do these movies always have to be so depressing?! And this one was just depressing on a whole other level too... for a moment it seemed like they might opt for comedy, but then it picked up again. The darkness. The death and... well, bits of comedy even there but... it feels like realism at it's truest. Monumental. The ironies of life and death. The old Planet of The Apes movies don't have shit on this one after all.

I can't help feel like they could've skipped the odd monkey. The one in the jacket. But then again he's a complement to the human girl... the one who's just monkeying around. And there's so much message in this movie I can't even tell it. CGI is on point. Story-telling took a few dives after the first encounter, and it jumps around until they're all back in chains again, but when it's time for the final revolution: they're back in their essence like never before!

You'll see when you reach those final scenes. I can't even fight the CGI any longer, at least not in a movie like this. It works. It's awesome. This movie really didn't get the spotlight it should've, and we humans: we need to take care of ourselves a bit better from here on out.

Set in a world with memory-recording implants, Alan Hakman is a cutter, someone with the power of final edit over people's recorded histories. His latest assignment is one that puts him in danger.

A fitting title if there ever was one! Though the description... it makes it all seem so much more than it is.

It's not an action movie. Not really. But it's not a boring movie either. The lack of projectile-based events that seem to be promised in the movie cover didn't leave me disappointed, as it seems to have left some other fellow reviewers - instead it just made it feel all the more authentic. If that's the right word for it for a movie of this genre... genre being sci-fi, though there's considerably little of both those elements. It looks and feels just like our own, current, home world. With one foreign element: the memory implant. Almost like the movie's a standpoint against it, should one ever be possible to make.

Robin Williams plays main character Hakman, in yet another future dystopia made like the old world with a little new-tech mixed in. It's not convincing per say, but stars a scary idea, a convincing character, and a personal tale that... really doesn't go the way you wanted it to.

It leaves your in an eerie state of mind. The suspense is real. It's there. It keeps boiling. It's not a perfect movie but... heavy. Worth a watch if you for some reason, like me, like delving into glimpses of what frightful flicks of fate out future might have in store for us. If we do its bidding. Good watch. Score based more on content than quality; a convincing cast more so than circumstance and scenery.

Time for yet another Purge movie! It's a sequel - but a prequel too, taking us back to a time before the by now within-franchise well-known, notorious New Founding Fathers of America had yet to come to power, and the experiment they then conducted on Staten Island, where for twelve hours the whole area was a lawless zone, and people were paid to stay, and to participate in what they expected would be an outbreak of crime and violence.

Instead people started Purge parties and just whiled out. For a while. Until Skeletor came stabbing...

From a purely political standpoint this might've been a mess, turning the multicultural disputes from earlier movies to a blacks VS whites thing, but I honestly didn't catch on to those arguments until I read some reviews. Lots of reviews. So negative. Is it really all that angled though? Is it?

If you go into this without paying political correctness or potential majority appeal any mind then: you'll most likely enjoy it. There's action. There's that creepy Purge night vibe. It's well-filmed and atmospheric, with some strong and deserving characters, and those glowing eyes! They really got something going with those. It's directed by none other than Michael Bay and Jason Blum, and stars actors such as Y'lan Noel, Mugga and Rotimi Paul. So what's there not to like? I'm also getting some GTA 3 vibes from the location.

Maybe I'll read up more, or see this again later, and cringe at my current level of cluelessness... but I'm just here for the action, and the atmosphere, and the fact that it plays with real and controversial topics is a definite plus, no matter how they're portrayed.

Ellen Page, Diego Luna, Nina Dobrev, James Norton, Kiersey Clemons...? It's a younger cast, it's a way more modern setting, the special effects are way more special (I did like those), yet it just doesn't have the same FEELING as the first one. Why can't they capture that these days? What's wrong with the world today? Even in death.

At least that's how it starts out. It does get better, albeit maybe not entirely scary with all the surplus screaming and horror movie music, and party humor, but the medical lingo is at least way more authentic. The tech. The everything except for the grueling, unsettling set... of life and death.

It was cool to see Kiefer Sutherland appear here btw - he had a major role in the original movie. And as far as modern day scary movies go... this wasn't bad after all. It wasn't bad.

Five medical students get together one night to assist one of them in dying, and bringing him back, as to learn the secrets of the life after. He comes back alright, after a lucid trip, a tunnel not of light but darkness to whatever's on the other side... and two more of the group decide to take the journey.

Yet it seems that something may have followed from the other side, and as Nelson struggles with his own demons the others compete as to who can stay under the longest before they come back, taking the search for answers further and further with each round. It's a dangerous and morbid game, and each time they get closer and closer to dying for real.

Considering the age of this movie I'm surprised at how good this was. It built up an atmosphere like I haven't seen in some time, the dreams interweave with reality, and as they edge each other onward the suspense just keeps building.

I feel like adding more words to this review will just ruin it at this point. Maybe this is one of the movies that truly started the existential sci-fi era, that reached it's peak with movies like Dark World and The Matrix around the shift of millennia. This really was... dark. On a psychological level. On an existential level... you know what they're really trying to say here. I don't know if I agree with it but I can't not be impressed by their attempt at it. Or maybe it really was all for the science.

I wonder how the new one compares... hard to believe it'll be a match for this one. I don't want to say it's perfect, so don't get your expectations unreasonably high here but: it gave me chills. Whole motion of emotions. Great movie.